In early spring of each year, Jews around the world celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a reminder to Jews and Gentiles alike of the unspeakable tragedy of the Holocaust under Hitler and the Nazis. Jews will never forget it, and they vow it shall never happen again. CHRISTIANITY TODAY joins with the Jewish people in remembering this infamous event. With them, we are determined that nothing like it shall ever happen again.
We believe it is specially appropriate on this occasion to raise six hard questions for both evangelicals and Jews:
1. Are evangelicals anti-Semitic?
2. Who killed Jesus?
3. Is the New Testament anti-Semitic?
4. Should Christians seek to evangelize Jews?
5. Should Jews fear evangelicals?
6. How can evangelicals and Jews work together?
No doubt it would be easier to avoid these sticky questions. But the occasion is far too momentous, the day too serious to allow ourselves to drift apart simply because we are unwilling to take the trouble to understand each other. We evangelicals and Jews need each other too much to gloss over our differences with superficial banalities. We owe it to each other to speak with open hearts and complete honesty.
Are Evangelicals Anti-Semitic?
Anti-Semitism is, of course, difficult to define. It includes infinitely more than genocide; for that is only the worst form of anti-Semitism—the final step in a long journey. On the other hand, anti-Semitism must not be so broadly defined as to preclude criticism of particular acts or of specific groups of Jews. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend,” says Scripture. It is possible to criticize a Jew without being anti-Semitic, just as it is possible to criticize an evangelical without being anti-evangelical.
On the whole, evangelicals tend to slough off suggestions that they are anti-Semitic. They admit that nominal Christians, particularly medieval Catholics and some members of the liberal church in modern Germany, were anti-Semitic; but evangelicals stand opposed to this. Beyond that, however, we must confess that Luther and the Reformers and many evangelical Protestants since then have made statements that Jews certainly have a right to consider anti-Semitic. We regret these anti-Semitisms of the past and present. Southern Baptist president Bailey Smith vigorously insists that he did not intend as anti-Semitic his recent remark that God does not hear the prayers of Jews. He says he loves and honors the Jews and that he was simply expounding a fine point of Baptist theology in his well-known reference to Jewish prayers. At any rate, other evangelical leaders, including such thorough conservatives as Jerry Falwell, have publicly dissociated themselves from Bailey Smith’s remark. Says Falwell. “God hears the cry of any sincere person who calls on him.” These leaders have vigorously rejected the Smith statement and made clear their opposition to all anti-Semitism. Still, we sorrowfully acknowledge anti-Semitic statements and actions. We are thankful, therefore, that we detect a spirit of repentance among evangelicals.
But repentance without restitution, like faith without works, is useless. What must evangelicals, and especially evangelical leaders, do to show that their repentance is sincere?
1. It is important that, where guilty, they publicly acknowledge past anti-Semitism, and declare it to be sin. If evangelicals are unwilling to set the record straight on this matter, any mouthing of repentance is rightly suspect.
2. Evangelical leaders must avoid any direct or indirect support for anti-Semitic causes. We believe contemporary evangelicals pass this test fairly well. Anti-Semitic leaders of the past, such as Gerald L. K. Smith and Gerald Winrod, and the anti-Semitic movements of the present such as the Ku Klux Klan, have absolutely no following among even the most conservative evangelical leaders. Of course, some evangelicals have espoused political and social causes that are not generally popular among Jews (who have tended to be liberal in these matters). But so far as we can see, they do this without any anti-Semitic overtones. And many evangelicals favor middle-of-the-road or liberal policies more congenial to the Jewish mainstream. It is also striking that the most politically conservative evangelical spokesmen are frequently the most pro-Jewish and pro-Zionist in their convictions. At any rate, evangelical leaders do not now align themselves in any way with anti-Semitic causes.
3. It is not enough just to condemn anti-Semitism in the past and remain aloof from anti-Semitic causes. Evangelical leaders and pastors must also use their teaching ministries to present solid instruction as to the antibiblical and anti-Christian nature of all anti-Semitic attitudes or actions. To heighten evangelical sensitivities concerning the horrors of anti-Semitism and the need Jews have for true Christian friends, church leaders would do well to show films like Avenue of the Just or Night and Fog, and discuss them as a deterrent to future wrongs.
4. Further, evangelical leaders must ferret out, expose, and actively oppose incipient and overt anti-Semitism that creeps into a society structured for centuries along anti-Semitic lines. Hitler did not arise in a cultural vacuum. His persecution of the Jews was the end product of a long history of anti-Semitism in which, alas, evangelicals too played an ignoble part. Incipient anti-Semitism leads to gross anti-Semitism, which may terminate in genocide. So evangelicals must root out even the incipient forms we often think are harmless. Are we careful to show an appropriate respect for Jews in our casual remarks, attempts at humor, or social and business relations?
5. Evangelicals must guard against the unconscious anti-Semitism in themselves and others that lies concealed in the structures of society. Jews, naturally more sensitive to this, can help evangelicals here by forthrightly pointing out such attitudes. A public school English teacher, for example, can instill prejudices for life by his treatment of Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.
6. As evangelicals demonstrate in tangible ways their abhorence of anti-Semitic actions, they will declare a crucial truth to the Gentile world at large: to attack Jews is to attack evangelicals, and such attacks will be resisted by evangelicals as attacks against themselves. Only in this way can evangelicals make their repentance credible. Evangelicals, we grant, may well have begun to move in this direction. They may well be the Jews’ best friends, but they certainly still have a long way to go.
Who Killed Jesus?
Careful students of Scripture may regard this question as irrelevant, if not ridiculous. But among untaught evangelicals and nominal Christians it is significant. The blame Gentiles heaped on Jews for the death of Christ created a profound sense of unfairness and resentment that has become a fixture of Jewish culture. Today, the repetition of this unjust charge produces an emotional, unconscious antagonism deep in the hearts of many Jews. Evangelical scholars, in writing on the New Testament, must bear this in mind, and show uninformed readers the scriptural teaching. A superficial reading of the New Testament leads some to conclude that the Jews as a whole condemned Jesus to death and the Romans performed the execution. A more careful reading shows it was only certain Jewish leaders who brought the charge and stirred up the mob. Romans executed Jesus partly because Pilate lacked the courage to stand against those leaders and the excited mob.
But this is only part of what the New Testament says on this question. Christians also believe that the death of Jesus was part of God’s overall plan. He chose the Jews to be a messianic people—a people through whom the world would be richly blessed (Gen. 12:1–3: “Thou shalt be a blessing … and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”). In his perfect life and sacrificial death, Jesus was the representative of the Jews in their messianic role to bring ultimate blessing to the whole human race (John 4:22: “Salvation is of the Jews”).
But the world today does not accept Jesus and his salvation, just as earlier it rejected God and his messianic people. In this sense, the Jewish leaders (and Pilate) were more representative of the unbelieving world than of the Jews. Jesus presented himself as the true Jew doing God’s messianic work as their representative. It is important that evangelical pastors, teachers, and leaders spell out clearly and specifically to their churches and constituencies that neither Jews of Jesus’ day nor Jews of today are corporately to be held responsible for the death of Jesus.
Is The New Testament Anti-Semitic?
Closely related to the question of who killed Jesus is the broader question of anti-Semitism in the New Testament. Paul, who is often considered to be the most anti-Semitic of all the New Testament writers, was himself a Jew, intensely proud of his Jewishness. The same is true of John, who, for all he said about Jewish leaders, left no doubt that Jews were the true people of God. All the New Testament writers except Luke were Jews. They boldly identified with the Jews, who, in contrast to Gentiles, cherished the Hebrew Scriptures and the idea of a coming Messiah.
One practical application of the alleged anti-Semitism of the New Testament requires special consideration. We must distinguish between what would not be anti-Semitic in the mouth of a first-century Jew and what those same words might convey about a Jew when spoken today. Both Christian and Jewish scholars recognize that the so-called anti-Jewish polemic in the New Testament is in reality an in-house debate among Jews.
But 2,000 years of anti-Semitism provide a wholly different context from that of the first century. New Testament words repeated in today’s context are interpreted to mean something quite different from what these same words meant in their New Testament context. This is not so much a theological problem as a hermeneutical one, and it demands very sensitive, discerning action on the part of the church. Whenever a pastor or leader reads or refers to a passage from the New Testament relating to this topic, it is imperative that he interpret it so that he places it in its wholistic Bible context, for these passages are misunderstood, perhaps not by the well-taught, but by the ill-taught. To avoid a misunderstanding of the New Testament message, therefore, evangelicals must provide their hearers with a careful interpretation set in its original Jewish context. Christians are not sensitive to this problem, but they would be if their grandfather, two uncles, and six cousins had died in the furnaces of Buchenwald.
Should Christians Seek To Evangelize Jews?
From its very beginning, Christianity sought to win converts to its faith. Evangelicals believe that Jesus Christ is their divine Lord and Savior and wish to share this good news with all others. Ultimately, salvation depends on faith in Christ. Any evangelical who does not believe this either is not a genuine evangelical, or is a very poorly instructed one. Jews, therefore, can expect evangelicals to seek adherents to Christian faith. They would be poor evangelicals if they did not.
But is it possible for evangelicals to obey the biblical mandate to evangelize in ways acceptable both to them and to Jews?
We begin by noting that both Jews and evangelicals today are firmly committed to religious freedom. Every religious group has the right to practice and propagate its own faith. At times Judaism has been a missionary religion. Jews have every right to seek to convert Christians to the Torah of God. They, in turn, must grant evangelicals the right to seek to win all people to the Christian message.
Of course, both Jews and Christians must repudiate certain kinds of evangelism. Some evangelistic techniques are not consistent with true respect for other people and, therefore, with the respect that every biblical Christian should have for every Jew. Evangelists ought not place unworthy pressures on Jews to induce them to become Christians. Any sort of manipulation or bribery is wholly out of order. We abhor any deception in seeking to present Christ to Jews. A small minority of Jewish Christians disguise their Christianity to attract unsuspecting Jews to accept Christianity. This is deceitful, contrary to the New Testament teaching, and unworthy of evangelical Christians. Evangelicals have more reasons to oppose this type of deception than do Jews, but we have often failed them by our silence. Evangelicals must speak out boldly and unequivocally against any deceitful practices. We must insist on ethical integrity as the first law of any Christian witness.
Should Jews Fear Evangelicals?
On what grounds, then, can we argue that Jews should not be afraid of evangelicals who are open and sincere in their evangelizing of Jews? We believe a number of reasons show that Jews ought to trust evangelicals as true friends.
1. Events of the last few years have shown that evangelicals have sought to identify with Jews. At times they may have embarrassed Jews by their well-meaning but not very sophisticated support, but in public and private they have made known their backing of Jewish causes; many have consistently supported the nation of Israel and Zionism; and they have defended the Jew in high and low places. G. Douglas Young, late president of the Israel American Institute, and Arnold T. Olson of the American Bible Society and president emeritus of the Evangelical Free Church of America, are only two of many evangelical leaders who have staunchly supported Jews at home and abroad.
2. Our next point is extremely sensitive, and we do not wish to introduce a red herring. Yet we fail to see why evangelicals’ support for Jews is negated by their desire to evangelize. Just the opposite is true. Their special concern for the Jew, drawn from the Bible, often translates into an even stronger motivation to share their faith with those toward whom they feel a unique relationship. Moreover, a Jew does not necessarily cease to be a Jew when he becomes a Christian any more than a Gentile ceases to be a Gentile when he becomes a Christian. Would he not technically remain a Jew—even though he might be reckoned apostate—since Judaism teaches that a Jew who sins is still a Jew?
We do object when Messianic Jews disguise their true intent and claim to be simply a Jewish party for the purpose of attracting Jews to Christianity. But if a Jew is defined as the son of a Jewish mother who voluntarily identifies himself as a Jew, one with other Jews of the past and present, brings himself under the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures, and follows Jewish practices as a true expression of his own piety, then surely there is no reason why his acceptance of Jesus as Messiah means that he ceases to be a Jew. We do not accept the view of Chaim Potok that a Jew cannot become Christian without converting out of Judaism. Christianity, Potok argues, destroys the essence of Judaism by completing its messianic goal, so the Jew who becomes a Christian has no further purpose in existing as a Jew. As we read the Bible, however, the messianic role of the Jew is permanent, both as a burden and as a glory, and will never be accomplished until the end of history (Isa. 2:1–4 and Rom. 11:26: “And so all Israel shall be saved”).
3. This leads us to a third reason why Jews can trust evangelical Christians for continued support: the role accorded to Jews by the Bible. This provides Christians faithful to both Old and New Testaments with powerful built-in safeguards to keep them from falling into anti-Semitism. They owe a great debt of gratitude to the Jewish people. According to the Bible, God chose them to be the instruments for his redemptive purposes in the world. Through them God gave his revelation in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and, finally, the Christian Messiah and Savior.
But if gratitude has a short memory, evangelicals have an even more compelling reason for special concern over Jews: many of them believe Jews are specially protected by God. Jews also have a future role in God’s plan; therefore, to fight them is to fight God (the Jews are still specially loved by God for “his gifts and call are irrevocable,” Rom. 11:28–29). God has even specially commanded them, so many evangelicals believe, to treat Jews well (“I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse,” Gen. 12:3).
4. Finally, Jews can count on evangelical concern because of the general stress in both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures on the fundamental nature of the ethic of love. Evangelicals do not always act in love, but in their Bible they have an immensely powerful and continuous encouragement to love Jews. And it warns them that eventually they are accountable to God for their deeds.
How Can Jews And Evangelicals Work Together?
Jews and evangelicals must join in working for racial and human justice in our homeland and in the Middle East, and for Jews and all people everywhere. They must stand united against all kinds of man’s inhumanity to man. For their part, Jews should not limit their opposition to anti-Semitism, but also stand against the hatred and superpatriotism that can foster it. Christians, on the other hand, need to share equally with the Jews in the ongoing battle against anti-Semitism. They must make all legitimate Jewish concerns their own, and they must especially identify with Jews and join with them in equally vigorous opposition against even incipient forms of anti-Semitism. We evangelicals need to make our identification with Jews so plain that—let us repeat—when anyone attacks Jews as Jews, or displays any form of anti-Semitism, he must know that he is also attacking evangelicals and violating their basic convictions. And he will then need to do battle against both Jews and evangelicals.
We would do well to heed the warning of a Christian of a former day. In his later years, German pastor Martin Niemoeller lamented: “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.” God forbid that American evangelicals will bring such a fate upon themselves.
But evangelicals and Jews have much more in common than a mutual desire for survival. Under God, both know themselves called by God to work for human good. Jews and evangelicals can cooperate to preserve all truly human values. We share the ethics of the Ten Commandments and the prophets. We are deeply committed to both political and religious freedom. In America, at least, we are committed to the separation of church and state. But we are also coming more and more to see that Western society, our nation, and even our public schools dare not be value free. Actually, there is no such thing as a value-free society. Our Western culture cannot hold together as a society where we should like our children to live without the Judeo-Christian heritage on which it was built. To remove these commonly held religious and moral values from Western society would be wholly undesirable and even disastrous for both Jews and Christians.
Rather, we should gratefully accept and promulgate the common values of our Judeo-Christian faith: the sanctity of human life, the stewardship of the earth’s resources, the importance of the family as the basic unit of society, respect for the individual and his inalienable rights, and the moral imperative to love one’s neighbor.
Of course, these are religious values, but they are also values to be preserved and defended by any stable government for the common good, for the personal and social welfare of the nation. We dare not permit those who reject these basic human values to prevent Christians and Jews from building them into our government, our public schools, and the basic social fabric of our society. Evangelicals and Jews must stand together to preserve our freedoms, our democratic society, and most of all, those basic values we owe ultimately to the Jews. As the messianic people of God, they have brought these infinite blessings to us Gentiles; and for this we evangelical Christians are deeply thankful.
The Atlanta murderer(s) will soon be found. But whether found or not found, they have revealed a festering sore in the heart of a great American city. And it could have been any city—yours or mine.
What caused this hideous outbreak that turns our stomachs sick just to hear of it? At this stage, with the crime yet unsolved, it seems to reflect at least two ugly motifs: hostility to children and racism. As New York pastor Alan Johnson points out, “Children are seen by many people as a hindrance, a source of competition with one’s felt need for self-expression, work, and freedom. The transition to two-income nuclear families, the gnawing experience of supporting children in one-parent homes during economic upheavals, cause some people to feel children as a burden and annoying presence. We become hostile to children and build up our arms to make ourselves safe. We enact policies which do not care about children and refuse to accept their needs.”
If hostility to children is newly surfacing, racism is a social wound with long history. But it is no more excusable for that reason. Nor can it be tolerated by any Christian who finds guidance for his life and thought in Holy Scripture. At this point, there is no evidence of Ku Klux Klan responsibility for the atrocities in Atlanta; but in other cities, they have displayed increasing outbursts of militant racism. As evangelicals we dare not push these disturbing events out of sight and out of mind. They will only explode in our faces later with more devastating fury than ever.
What can evangelicals do at this moment? Write to local papers. Contact other public communications media wherever possible. Write to congressmen asking provision of additional funds needed in Atlanta to continue the investigation. Assist Atlanta churches and organizations formed to bring criminals to justice and to alleviate the causes of child abuse and racial tension (CT, April 10, p. 62). And don’t forget to pray for the families in Atlanta.
